Micron workers approve Italian jobs deal

April 16, 2014 //
By Peter Clarke

Workers at multiple sites across Italy working for memory chip company Micron Technology Inc. (Boise, Idaho) have approved a deal that should preserve employment for most of 419 engineers whose jobs were under threat.

In a vote, that included more than 1,000 of Micron' Italian employees, the deal received 749 votes in favor and 108 votes against, a source has told EE Times Europe .

The approval was expected after union representatives and Micron executives reached agreement on April 9 and 10. The deal still leaves 48 workers facing redundancy although with a 12-month period to try and find alternative work with support from Micron, STMicroelectronics, Italian government ministries and the European Union. The job losses were one of the reasons for the significant "no" vote, as the original goal of the unions had been that all the Micron Italy workers should be protected.

In January 2014 it became public that Micron had decided that 419 of its workers, many of them research engineers, must lose their jobs under a restructuring initiative intended to better align Micron's resources with where it has manufacturing and customers. This represented about 40 percent of Micron's Italian workforce.

Under the terms of the deal Micron has reduced its job cuts and STMicroelectronics has said it will employ up to 170 of the Micron workers originally under threat. Micron has also said it is committed to remaining in Italy with a plan to invest $20 million over the period 2014 to 2016.

The unions and government officials will maintain a watching brief to make sure that the deal is implemented, the source said.